Warner Oland's final appearance as Charlie Chan is
one of
the weaker
episodes in the long running series. The story was too
muddled. Charlie
and number one son, Lee (Luke), are in Monte Carlo for
a brief gambling
vacation before going to Paris, where Lee's art work
will be in an
exhibition
contest. When their taxi breaks down before they catch
the train to
Paris,
they are forced to walk and come across a luxury car
with a dead bank
messenger
(Renavent). The chauffeur, Ludwig (Bleifer), is also
missing. A sports
car is speeding away from the crime scene. Charlie on
further
investigation
finds a rhinestone by the car and footprints in the
sand.

On the night the murder was committed Gordon Chase
(Kent),
the brother
of Joan Karnoff (Linaker), learns from his sister that
$25,000 in
securities
is missing from her wealthy husband Victor's
(Blackmer) safe. Gordon
tells
his sister to get it back to him immediately, since
Victor is dumping
these
metallurgic securities on the market to cause
financial woes on his
main
rival Paul Savarin (Raquello).

Joan was once married to an American, Al Rogers
(Lynn), who
has a
history as a petty thief back in Chicago and is
working as a bartender
in the Hotel Imperial. She was never divorced and is
now being
blackmailed
for the bonds. In exchange for the bonds he will not
reveal that she's
still married. But Al refuses to return the blackmail
money to Joan and
she's forced to pawn her jewelry.

Victor tells the police the dead messenger was
carrying a
million
in bonds and accuses Savarin of the crime, but he also
says he's not
worried
because he was insured. The police also discover that
Rogers tried to
sell
$25,000 in bonds that were Victor's. Charlie's friend,
the police
chief,
Jules Joubert (Huber), finds the owner of the sports
car is Evelyn Gray
(Virginia Field) and Charlie discovers it was her
rhinestone he found.
On
a police check they find Evelyn is a 24-year-old
Londoner with no
source
of income but living in one of Monaco's best hotels,
dressed in furs,
and
driving an expensive sports car. Upon questioning, she
admits she saw
the
dead man but did not kill him.

The chauffeur is found dead in a marsh near the
crime
scene. Charlie
and Jules then discover Roger's body when they go to
question him, as
the
murderer tried to make it look like a suicide and left
the bag with the
stolen bonds in his room. But Charlie notes there are
$200,000 in bonds
missing and brings all the suspects together to tell
them that the one
who took those missing bonds and then put them back in
Victor's safe,
is
the killer of three people and is presently in the
room.

It comes down to looking at the blackmail angle and
the
romantic
triangle, and from those clues the wily Charlie puts
it all together.
For
comedy, Lee's misuse of French leads to some
embarrassing situations
and
Joubert's choppy English and inflated pride in his
bumbling police
department
leads to some amusing moments.